Chicago Bears Top 100: #1 Walter Payton

By 1984 the Bears were finally a championship caliber team for the first time in Walter Payton’s career. They lost in the conference championship that year to the 49ers, but came in to the ’85 season as one of the Super Bowl favorites. The ’85 Bears were one of the greatest teams of all-time and the defense got most of the attention, but Payton, in his 10th NFL season, had one of his best years ever. He finished the ’85 season with 2,034 yards from scrimmage, scored 11 TDs and won his 2nd NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. Unfortunately Payton didn’t get a TD in the Super Bowl, but he did get his first and only championship ring.

Payton followed up his first title with another solid year in ’86; He had 1715 yards from scrimmage, 11 TDs, and made the Pro Bowl, but announced at the end of the season that he would be retiring after the ’87 season. Payton deferred to his successor Neal Anderson for much of his final season and finished with a career low 533 yards. The Bears lost to the Redskins again in the playoffs and Payton had 105 total yards in his last NFL game.

In his 13 years with the Bears Walter Payton carried the ball 3,838 times for a then NFL record 16,726 yards and 110 touchdowns (2nd to Marcus Allen at the time). He was also extremely durable, only missing 1 game in his 13-year career, and holds the record for most starts by a Bear with 184. Payton made 9 Pro Bowls, 5 all-NFL teams, won 2 Offensive Player of the Year awards, had his number 34 retired by the Bears, and was selected into the Hall of Fame in 1993 in the first year he was eligible.

The statistics are impressive, but they don’t tell the whole story of Walter Payton. The numbers show that he was a great running back, but Sweetness was much more than that. Payton was a great blocker, a reliable receiver, the emergency punter, and even threw 8 TD passes in his career. His former teammate, Brian Baschnagel, once said that Payton could play any position on the field except maybe he was too small for defensive tackle. Sweetness could do it all.

Payton wasn’t the fastest or strongest running back, but what separated Sweetness from the rest of the great running backs was his aggressive running style and his indomitable will. Payton seemed to seek out defenders at the end of his runs to give them a better hit then he got. His fierce stiff-arm and stutter-step move in the open field are two things were distinctly Sweetness. I think this quote from Payton best sums up his attitude and running style:

"“The thing about defensive players is that they want to hit you as hard as they can. My coach at Jackson St, Bob Hill, always said that if you are going to die, you should die hard, never die easy.”"

I started watching football in ’84 and Payton was my favorite player. He was the first and only other player besides Michael Jordan that I had absolute faith in to come through in any circumstance. If the Bears needed 4 yards, Sweetness was going to get at least 5. He was the greatest running back of all-time and I consider myself lucky to have been a Bears fan during Payton’s career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssYSS97xvI

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